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The guys behind the viral Instagram leech that is @fuckjerry used celebrity photos and stolen memes to push their tequila brand. To promote Jaja Tequila, Spanish for "haha," they posted edited images of Amy Poehler, Idris Elba, Will Smith, and other famous people to advertise their product, Vice reports.
SEE ALSO: A campaign to unfollow the Fyre Festival promoters is gaining tractionHere's the kicker — none of these celebrities consented to shilling Jaja. Anderson Cooper, for example, infamously (and painfully) did tequila shots on live TV during CNN's New Year's Eve coverage, but it wasn't Jaja. That didn't stop the company from editing the image to look like Cooper was breathing fire and writing "Jaja vs other tequilas" above it.
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"We do not endorse their product and we did not give them permission to use our branding or talent in their promotion," a CNN spokesperson told Vice. Amy Poehler's publicist echoed that sentiment, stating that the agency would "now take appropriate action."
The celebrity posts have since been removed, but Jerry Media insists that posting them was perfectly legal because "that type of content falls under parody."
According to Vice, Maurice Tebele, Jaja president and brother of FuckJerry founder Elliot Tebele, acknowledged the "recent scrutiny with social media in general."
#FuckFuckJerry took over Instagram and Twitter this month, calling for people to unfollow the meme account for posting content from comedians and social media users without proper credit. In response, Jerry Media promised to ask for permission before reposting content, but didn't state whether they would compensate creators for jokes they've already stolen and used in advertisements.
In addition to using the photos without permission, Vice reports that many influencers featured Jaja in posts without disclosing that they were ads, raising eyebrows at the Federal Trade Commission. Even if the influencers were compensated with free booze and merchandise instead of actual cash, it could still count as payment.
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"We did actually remove some of those posts from our feed because we felt that they would spur some kind of backlash," Tebele said. "So right now everything you see on the feed is either photos of the product or original content. So now there's nothing with celebrities anymore."
Will they stick to it? Knowing the company's history of profiting off other people's work, it seems up in the air.
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